Presents Sometimes Reveal More Than They Hide
by gambits princess
Summary: Bilbo likes to dwarf watch


Bilbo's mother use to say that you could tell a lot about a person by the way they wrapped a gift. He remembered this as he sat watching his friends wrapping up many sized boxes in colorful papers. The first person to catch his eye was Dwalin. The warrior was sitting in Bilbo's plush love seat with Thorin. His box was small and he had chosen silver and blue paper and was carefully wrapping it around the box, sure to press down the corners, so they did not stick up unevenly.

Bilbo assumed Dwalin's need for perfection came from years of learning and perfecting battle strategies and the like but the obvious color coordinated gifts for each dwarf ( blue and sliver, the gift was obviously for Thorin ) lead Bilbo to wonder if the old warrior may suffer from a mental compulsion for neatness. Bilbo's eyes moved to Thorin next to him. The current King Under the Mountain had a large box in his lap and was attempting to cut just enough paper to wrap the thing. Bilbo, for the first time in a while realized that Thorin had grown up as royalty.

Thorin glared at the box as if it had offended him. Bilbo watched as he tried to tape one spot while another flopped open. Just when Bilbo feared the king would hurl his gift across the room Dwalin reached over and held the paper down allowing Thorin to seal the gift without losing his grip on the other unsealed seam. Bilbo smiled as he watched the couple, he was happy to see that Thorin had learned that he need not always be perfect.

His eyes found Fili and Kili side by side as always although he noticed Bifur now sat with them on Kili's left. Just as they had done in battle, Kili wrapped his present recklessly ending up with a two toned blob of a box as Fili watched over his shoulder. Fili's gift showed the discipline he had learned as a child, a neatly wrapped box but on top sat a multicolored bow. Bilbo chuckled, he knew Fili would never truly grow up and the thought warmed his heart.

Bifur's gift was the first to catch Bilbo by surprise. He had expected to see a mostly half wrapped gift, instead he was met with a simple but yet beautifully shaped present. Bifur's present actually looked better than Kili's, Bilbo made a not to pay more attention to Kili's quiet lover.

Oin and Gloin had choose to wrap there boxes in matching paper the only difference being the ribbons on top, Bilbo felt maybe that this spoke to how close the brothers were but couldn't deduce much more than that and moved onto Balin & Ori. Ori sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the fire, his tongue poking out of his mouth as he pulled a knitted jumper over his box and closed it off with a scarf in the shape of a bow. Bilbo already knew Ori was a scribe for a reason but suddenly he saw just how creative the young dwarf was. Balin sat in a chair not fair from Ori, his already wrapped gift sat on a side table as his eyes stayed focused on Ori with a small smile on his lips.

Bofur was in the kitchen with Bombur helping his brother wrap as he and Bilbo had done all of their wrapping before the others had even arrived. Bilbo couldn't get much of a view into the kitchen and decided to watch the last two dwarfs of the company finish their gifts. His gaze stopped on Dori & Nori, the two sat close enough to be considered family but further enough away to tell that there may still be unresolved tension in their relationship. Dori was wrapping his gift without looking at years of wrapping his siblings' gifts after losing their mother had made him quite the expert at the craft.

Bilbo smiled as Nori rolled his eyes as his older brother tried to give him advice on how to tie the best bow. Nori ignored all of Dori's suggestions but the fact that he did not talk back to the older dwarf proved that they were indeed melding there once broken relationship. Just as Bilbo was about to glance away he noticed Noir's hands still on the half tied bow, glancing up to see the ex-thief's face Bilbo followed his line of sight only to find a laughing Bombur at the end." Interesting," Bilbo said to himself as he made a decision to also pay more attention to Nori, maybe he would get a chance to play match-maker this season.


End file.
